Nasjonal Samling

Nasjonal Samling ("National Unity") was a fascist political party that existed in Norway from 13 May 1933 to 8 May 1945. The party was founded by defense minister Vidkun Quisling, and it had low popularity before World War II; it never won above 2.5% of the vote, and its rallies and marches were banned or disrupted by communists and socialists. In April 1940, Quisling entered a Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation studio in Oslo and declared that he was Prime Minister, and Nasjonal Samling became the new ruling party in Axis-allied Norway. The party advocated a return to Norse paganism and endorsed anti-Semitism, nationalism, authoritarianism, and corporatism, and it verified claims that it was the Norwegian version of the Nazi Party, claims that had been made by the party's enemies during the 1930s. In 1945, after Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allied Powers at the end of World War II, the party was banned, and several of its leaders were executed, while several members were imprisoned.